The grave of l'Abbé Pierre

In 1966, Georges Legay, Emmaus' very first companion, died in the Paris region. He was buried in Esteville, and other companions were buried in the two churchyards of the commune, in Esteville and in the hamlet of Touffreville.

There are almost a hundred companions buried there. Some ended their days in the Emmaus House of Esteville (which was a retirement home from 1972 to 1999). Others asked to be with l’Abbé Pierre.

In January 2007, l’Abbé Pierre was buried in this modest churchyard which was full of meaning for him and thousands of people in France and around the world. He wished to be buried as he had lived, with the companions of Emmaus, under a Christ humbly lying on the ground, which companions had recovered during a scrap collection.

Georges Legay, the first companion, was a former convict released for good behavior in 1949. Returning to Paris after twenty years in Cayenne, Guyana, he failed to find his way to a happy life. Sick and alcoholic, with no family united to welcome him, George wanted to drown himself.

Relatives called l’Abbé Pierre in October or November 1949 to help this desperate man. Listening to his life story, l’Abbé Pierre had an idea. He invited Georges to come live and work with him, in his house in Neuilly-Plaisance, east of Paris. Instead of offering him immediate and classic solutions, for example by giving alms, l’Abbé Pierre offered him to join and help others in need: "Come and help me to help others," he told him. This is the phrase that underlies the principle of the Emmaus community and the role of companions. Today, hundreds of communities welcome thousands of women and men who become saviors of others. They live and work together, often through the professions of recovery, to build a more just and fraternal society.

In 1982, Lucie Coutaz died and was buried in the village churchyard. This woman played a very important role alongside l’Abbé Pierre and in the adventure of Emmaus. A consecrated lay person, she belonged during the war to the same network of resistance fighters as l’Abbé Pierre in Grenoble. Together with others, they led a border passeur network to Switzerland to rescue Jews or resistance fighters hunted by the Nazis. They also created a maquis in Vercors, with refractories in the service of compulsory work. At Liberation, Lucie Coutaz became l’Abbé Pierre’s parliamentary assistant, when he was the MP of a Meurthe-et-Moselle constituency. She then followed him for more than thirty years in the creation and development of the Emmaus Movement in France and around the world, becoming "co-founder of Emmaus".